Discovering the adversary, one day at a time

September 28, 2011

Zawahiri in Dagestan

A Study of Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet, Part IV, Zawahiri in Dagestan

Well into Chapter 3 (subtitled, “Return to the Field”) of the second edition of his Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet (original, here - http://www.archive.org/details/frsan2010), Zawahiri turns his attention to his experiences in a prison in Dagestan. The full account (minus footnotes), and the following interlude regarding a family friend are reproduced below.

Preface

Part 1: A Look Back at the Past / Chapter 3: Return to the Field/ Section 5: Dagestan – Relief after Despair

“Or, who listens to the distressed when he calls on him, and who relieves his suffering, and makes you (mankind) inheritors of the earth? (Can there be another) god besides Allah? Little it is that ye heed” [Koranic verse; An-Naml, 27:62]

A boy may be fed up with a tribulation and God has the way out, Tightened, and just when its loops were firmly well-knit it was widely opened, while I thought it wouldn't, Those are days and lessons while the act of God is waiting, Would you give up hope while God and predestination are there?

Since the spring of 1996 a new wave of pursuits has started, against the Arab mujahidin generally, managed by the United States and carried out by the yielding systems. As to Shaykh Usama bin Ladin, may Allah protect him, had to emigrate to Afghanistan through a trip of danger, while we preferred to try moving through the countries so that we might find a chance to secure a suitable location where we can mange work, using our experience in disguise and moving. In this way we started our trip of moving among countries.

Asking where we should depart to and who would ask a poor man where his creeds are, Roads would be broad if his relatives would be grudge to him, So that he may take revenge or catch big loot this epoch have a lot of wonders, As long as I'm alive I wouldn't let brothers down as a thirsty man never leaves water, Let alone a bad companion as you would be quite aware of their affliction and practices.

At the beginning of autumn in 1996, we realized that the risk of such relocation would be higher than its benefits, and that we would be unable to serve the jihad movement unless we move to a stable base for the mujahidin where we can work there under freedom and security for our benefit and to support our brothers.

There was no way for us other than Afghanistan or Chechnya. As for Afghanistan, we had a little information on what was going on there, and we were worried about it because of the civil war broken out in the country, and we were so concerned that we might find ourselves reluctantly involved in this war or we might be attacked by a party involved with the United States or the Pakistanis, especially after Burhan-al-Din Rabbani had declared his inclination to extradite whom he called terrorists upon his visit to Egypt, in despite of the fact that he was in need of a protection, but it was a competition for offering services to gain satisfaction and benefits of the new world master.

So, we decided to head for Chechnya. The rout passed through Dagestan where we infiltrated, yet we were arrested through the way at Darbandi City in Dagestan as we had no entry visa to Russia where Dagestan is considered a part of the country. The police referred us to the Ministry of Intelligence which sent us to the Border Guard. So, within few hours we found ourselves at the detention camp of the Border Guard Command in Dagestan under the grasp of the Russian Army.

The investigation started with us because we entered the lands of federal Russia without visa, and they didn't find with us what might make them suspicious of our relationship with the mujahidin. We were facing two problems; the first was the legal crime of entering the country without visa, and the second, which could be more dangerous, was the probability to be revealed in addition the consequences.

We decided to endure whichever would be easier, and to simulate merchants who were deceived by someone who brought them in the country without visa for some money, and that we were business owners who came to Afghanistan seeking trade opportunities. We actually told the investigators the details of our trip along with some evasion and mentioned true information about the route we passed through, and investigators were convinced with the story, and filed a criminal legal issue against us. Then, the issue evolved upon their decision to refer us to the central prison at the Capital, Makhachkala, then, the Police started a legal investigation with us where we repeated the same story. After that, we were called in by the Ministry of Intelligence in the Capital and investigated us severally, we repeated the only same story, and the investigators were content of the artlessness of our case so that it was just a case of an entry without visa to the country, and then our documents were referred to the courts where we were sentenced to a 6-month prison term out of which four and half months had elapsed.

Over this period we had passed by so many favors of God for our protection, graciousness and safekeeping that we could not express our thanks for, (Verily my Lord is gracious to whom he wills for verily he is full of knowledge and wisdom).

How much is the concealed clemency of God which cannot be realized by an intelligent man, And how much relief to come after difficulty to release a sad heart from distress, And how much misfortune we may have in a morning and then happiness comes in the evening, If you, one day, could not bear up with your troubles you should have to rely on the One and Only God,

Ali Bin-Abu-Talib, may God dignify him, said:

If despair would prevail in hearts so a large heart is fed up with distress, And adversities have settled in serenity while troubles have anchored, Then you could not find a way out even with the help of a man of the world, When disheartened, you receive succor bestowed upon you by who is ever close and responding, As all incidents once aggravated are linked to the imminent relief,

The period of those six months that I had spent in prison in Dagestan had frequently inspired my thinking and meditation, so that one of the brothers once called my attention asking me about the reason I was excessively mentioning its events, and I answered him that was because of the big deal of lessons we passed through over that period.

With the reader's permission, here, I would like to discuss some of my meditation through this period, so that I would start with the discussion about Caucasus, then discussion about the prison in Dagestan, as the picture of my experience at Dagestan prison cannot be framed without understanding a brief historic, jihadist and political background of the Muslim Caucasus.

Subsection 1

My First Personal Approach to the Muslim Caucasus

My first personal approach to the Muslim Chechens was through a serious person known to my family by the name Bakir Bey. I was introduced to him at the house of some relatives, then he became a friend of my father to be invited on occasions like breakfast in Ramadan. Bakir Bey was from the Muslim Caucasian and I did not know exactly where he was from? As I had no detailed idea at that time about the Muslim Caucasus, and Bakir Bey was one of the mujahidin who fought against the Russians in Caucasus, then he escaped to Turkey during the World War I. He expressed to us his shock when he had seen the Christian forces occupying the Caliphate center, after that he immigrated to Egypt where he settled down and shifted between several jobs, the latest was the silver ornaments trade. Bakir Bey was a venerable dignified man, white-haired with big mustache, proud of himself, big-bodied and strong. He was speaking fluent Arabic but similarly to the accent of the Egypt- populated Turks. Although his age was falling between seventy and eighty, he used to challenge us with his strength while we were young men.

Sometimes he came to visit my relatives in his Caucasian distinguished dress, and he was not bored talking about the Muslim Caucasus tragedy and the Muslims fight against the Russian Tsars then the communists thereafter, and possibly giving out some pamphlets about Muslims oppression in Caucasus. He used to chant the prophetic anthem, peace and blessings be upon God’s messenger, with his strong voice, then to stand up with his dagger pulled out and start strong dancing while shouting: There is no god but God, There is no god but God.He lived in a small apartment at Al-Atabah Square beyond "Dhu al-Uqud" Market which was known as (Arcades of Al-Atabah), and I remember when I visited him for once at that flat where he signaled to a window overlooking upon the Square, then said:

"A day will come when Islam will be prevailing, then I will mount a machine-gun on this window and shoot miscreants while shouting: There is no god but God."

The reason Bakir Bey was introduced to my family was its friendship with Al-Amrusi Bey, who was a serious man who worked at the Egyptian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, and that was during the period when my maternal grandfather, Scholar Abd-al-Wahhab Azzam, was the Egyptian Ambassador thereto. At the Medina, Al-Amrusi Bey got married to one of Imam Shamil granddaughters, named Lady Zubaydah. So, Lady Zubaydah became a friend of my grandmother and aunts, and she was a grave woman strongly proud of her grandfathers and their heritage, talking redundantly about them. Therefore, Bakir Bey was introduced to my family through Al-Amrusi Bey and Lady Zubaydah, and Bakir Bey was behaving as an obedient dependant to Lady Zubaydah despite his gravity and reverence.

Bakir Bey, at the end of his life, departed to Turkey where his family gathered after a long separation, and he passed away, may God rest him at mercy, before he could witness the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dependence of Chechnya.

I frequently was recalled Bakir Bey during my imprisonment in Dagestan, and thought that he had to come to Caucasus and participate in the Chechen battles against Russians, may Allah have mercy on this immigrant Mujahid and all the Muslims.

I would see myself unable to clear up the picture of my experience at Dagestan prison without briefly presenting the historic, combative, political and psychological backgrounds of Russia's conflict with the Muslim Caucasus in general as well as with Chechnya in particular, especially just before my imprisonment, that is what I would attempt through the second, third and fourth subsections of this demand.